Citation

Andelic N, Arango-Lasprilla JC, Perrin PB, Sigurdardottir S, Lu J, Landa LO, Forslund MV, Roe C. J. Neurotrauma 2015; 33(1): 95-100.

Affiliation

University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway ; nandelic@online.no.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Mary Ann Liebert Publishers)

DOI

10.1089/neu.2014.3844

PMID

25897980

Abstract

The aims of this study were to assess the trajectories of community integration in individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) through 1, 2, and 5 years post-injury and to examine whether those trajectories could be predicted by demographic and injury characteristics. A longitudinal cohort study was conducted with 105 individuals with moderate-to-severe TBI admitted to a Trauma Referral Centre in 2005-2007. Demographics and injury-related factors were extracted from medical records. At the 1-, 2- and 5-year follow-ups, community integration was measured by the Community Integration Questionnaire (CIQ). A hierarchical linear model (HLM) examined whether longitudinal trajectories of community integration could be predicted by: time, sex, age, relationship status, education, employment status, occupation, acute Glasgow Coma Scale score, cause of injury, days in posttraumatic amnesia (PTA), CT Marshall Score, and injury severity score. CIQ scores improved across the three time points (p <.001). Additionally, higher trajectories of community integration were predicted by being single at the time of injury (p <.001), higher level of education (p =.006), employment (p <.001), and a shorter length of PTA (p <.001). In a follow-up HLM with interaction terms, time*PTA was statistically significant (p <.001), suggesting that participants with longer PTA increased in community integration more rapidly than those with shorter PTA. The longitudinal course of community integration described in this study may help rehabilitation professionals to plan more extensive follow-ups and targeted rehabilitation programs in the early stage of recovery for patients with specific demographic and injury characteristics.

Language: en